San Antonio is to small of a city in my opinion. Same as Portland and Salt Lake City. If MLB feels the need to move anywhere I suspect the only really viable candidates are Montreal or maybe...maybe...Vancouver.

Lip

A stadium on the Vegas Strip would be incredibly successful, I believe. I know MLB would never go for it due to the league's uneasy history with gambling, and I realize the local market in Vegas is relatively small, but attendance would be strong from visiting fans and just tourists who want a diversion. Pipe dream, but it would be awesome.

Otherwise, the only other market that really makes sense is Montreal. With a modern stadium and an ownership group that is committed to the market, the fans there will come out. Basing Montreal's viability on the Expos' last few years' attendance figures just isn't fair, as Loria and MLB did everything they could to sabotage that fanbase (and playing in easily the worst ballpark I've ever visited surely didn't help).

The new stadium has cost the local government, what, over $2 billion? They ain't moving.

The Marlins (and MLB, for that matter) have shown utter disdain for the government and people of Miami. Unless there's an ironclad lease involved (and there may be, I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me if there isn't) then what makes you think either entity cares that the city is on the hook?

The new stadium has cost the local government, what, over $2 billion? They ain't moving.

Not yet, but it will once all the bonds that were taken out to finance the park's construction are finally paid off.

The only thing I hope is that this Miami deal is so utterly horrendous that it finally acts as the tipping point for local governments to stop handing over millions of dollars to subsidize these billion dollar sports leagues. At least with baseball, there appears to be very little real possible markets that could sustain an MLB team available, unlike the NFL and NBA which are using Los Angeles and Seattle as leverage. But the state legislature in Florida has apparently not been very receptive to the Dolphins' request to publicly finance renovations to Sun Life Stadium. They're making noise that this may force them to move... We'll have to see how it plays out.

I would think they do, but I agree with you in that's about the only legitimate market that could support a baseball team right now. Maybe Montreal if Selig and Loria hadn't ****ed them so hard.

Loria would be as welcomed back to Montreal as Modell would have been back in Cleveland.

__________________"I have the ultimate respect for White Sox fans. They were as miserable as the Cubs and Red Sox fans ever were but always had the good decency to keep it to themselves. And when they finally won the World Series, they celebrated without annoying every other fan in the country." Jim Caple, ESPN (January 12, 2011)

"We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the (bleeding) obvious is the first duty of intelligent men." — George Orwell

A stadium on the Vegas Strip would be incredibly successful, I believe. I know MLB would never go for it due to the league's uneasy history with gambling, and I realize the local market in Vegas is relatively small, but attendance would be strong from visiting fans and just tourists who want a diversion. Pipe dream, but it would be awesome.

Basing a team around drawing tourists with a small local core crowd would be disastrous. I just don't think people would go to Vegas to watch a team they have no interest in.

That's what they get for installing blue seats. Don't they know that you have to have green seats to improve attendance?

I also read that they plan to keep the roof closed this season for all games. The "official" reason is that there is an issue with the AC system, however the truth is that it costs a lot of money to open and then reclose the roof and re-cool the ballpark. With such low attendance, why bother with opening the roof?

San Antonio is to small of a city in my opinion. Same as Portland and Salt Lake City. If MLB feels the need to move anywhere I suspect the only really viable candidates are Montreal or maybe...maybe...Vancouver.

Lip

If San Antonio is too small for a baseball franchise, there are no available markets left that are big enough by your criteria. There are 2.1 million people in the San Antonio metropolitan area. That's big enough. Especially when you consider the Austin metropolitan area is 1.3 million people and it's only an hour north.

I say, if you had to (this will never happen), put the Pirates in the NL East, put the Astros back in the NL Central, and put the San Antonio Whatevers in the AL West.

But the real reason you can't put a baseball team in Texas is it's time zone. The Rangers pull it off (the Astros don't anymore). Every time a team in Texas plays a division game, the game is on at 9 or 10 o'clock at night. Doesn't bode well for a new franchise.

If San Antonio is too small for a baseball franchise, there are no available markets left that are big enough by your criteria. There are 2.1 million people in the San Antonio metropolitan area. That's big enough. Especially when you consider the Austin metropolitan area is 1.3 million people and it's only an hour north.

It's probably not when you consider Kansas City, long lamented for it's small market status, is a bigger MSA

Not yet, but it will once all the bonds that were taken out to finance the park's construction are finally paid off.

The only thing I hope is that this Miami deal is so utterly horrendous that it finally acts as the tipping point for local governments to stop handing over millions of dollars to subsidize these billion dollar sports leagues. At least with baseball, there appears to be very little real possible markets that could sustain an MLB team available, unlike the NFL and NBA which are using Los Angeles and Seattle as leverage. But the state legislature in Florida has apparently not been very receptive to the Dolphins' request to publicly finance renovations to Sun Life Stadium. They're making noise that this may force them to move... We'll have to see how it plays out.

How long will that be? Doesn't the typical publicly financed statdium take a few decades to pay off?

Quote:

Originally Posted by doublem23

It's probably not when you consider Kansas City, long lamented for it's small market status, is a bigger MSA

Agreed. It looks like San Antonio metro is approximately the same size as Kansas City, Charlotte, and even Indianapolis.

It's been discussed many times, but the problem with finding a new MLB market is that a successful team needs to sell something like 2.5 million tickets every year. We're talking about twice as many games as the NBA or NHL in a stadium that seats about twice as many people as the typical NBA/NHL arena.

There simply aren't enough good alternatives out there for the Marlins, Rays, and A's. The Marlins aren't going anywhere. What I'd be interested in seeing is how the Marlins would do with their new park if they had a team like the Rays - which has been fairly successful/competitive on the field over the past 5 seasons.

How long will that be? Doesn't the typical publicly financed statdium take a few decades to pay off?

Agreed. It looks like San Antonio metro is approximately the same size as Kansas City, Charlotte, and even Indianapolis.

It's been discussed many times, but the problem with finding a new MLB market is that a successful team needs to sell something like 2.5 million tickets every year. We're talking about twice as many games as the NBA or NHL in a stadium that seats about twice as many people as the typical NBA/NHL arena.

There simply aren't enough good alternatives out there for the Marlins, Rays, and A's. The Marlins aren't going anywhere. What I'd be interested in seeing is how the Marlins would do with their new park if they had a team like the Rays - which has been fairly successful/competitive on the field over the past 5 seasons.

Seems that nobody in Miami cares or goes to the games unless they have a winner. Just see the Heat for a perfect example of how big of a bandwagon town that is.